This is a continuation of the story of me, being a Latina stranded in a Caucasian body. To read the previous tidbit, check here. I went to small Catholic schools growing up, and the one I attended from the 2nd to 6th grade ended at grade six, so in 7th grade I switched to another small Catholic school. As I entered the 7th grade, the teacher who had taught my brother 2 years before was no longer working there and a brand new teacher was also starting her first year as the 7th and 8th grade teacher. I’m sure you’ve heard people say before that teachers have changed their lives – Ms. Nice is one of those teachers.

One of the parts that I most admired about Ms. Nice is that not only was she one of those teachers, and not only did she know she was one of those teachers – she also told us she was one of those teachers. I don’t remember if I admitted it then (you know how teenagers are!), but she was an awesome teacher and I loved it. She taught me to take the box and throw it away – not just think outside of it. Looking back on those years, I remember myself as a socially awkward, emotionally troubled, homely child with no self-confidence and even less self-esteem. And this teacher walked in with bright white hair and bright red lipstick and told us all she was an awesome teacher, the kind whose students never forget her, and my heart started to be chiseled open.

One of the activities she so proudly told us her former students still talked about was when she had us all write down one single solitary positive sentence about every single person in our class. She collected all the papers and consolidated every positive thought about each person onto a single sheet for that person to keep. Then she distributed them. She also told us about how some of her former students came up to her and showed her the paper they had kept after who knows how many years, tattered but still whole in their wallets. She said it was a life-changer for some of them, they read it when they felt down or they read it when they needed encouragement.

I was, and still am, a very socially awkward person. It burns me, but I think my husband – who was captain of his high school football team – takes the brunt of it. He simply cannot understand how someone can be so awkward and, let’s face it, geeky. It wasn’t too difficult for me to think of positive things to say about other people. But what was difficult was looking at my classmates, my peers, bent over their desks and wondering what they might possibly be writing about me. My heart is hammering even now just remembering it.

I don’t remember anything about the actual distribution of the papers, but I still have mine. I don’t keep them in my wallet, but there’s a tattered yellow page full of my teacher’s beautiful handwriting (I so wish I could write like that) in a special box I have of tokens and bits of paper that mean something to me. I guard it with my life, because I’m sure my husband would not understand the significance and throw it away if he happened upon it. At any rate, when I looked at the sentences I was a little… stunned.

I’ve always been a geek, a nerd, a dork, what-have-you. Apparently other people think I’m smart. I, however, know the truth – I’m not smart, but I’m a good faker. And a lucky guesser. That combination apparently translates into smart. Anyone who went to school with me at the residential public high school for gifted and talented kiddos can probably attest to the fact that I wasn’t smart enough to be there. I never thought I was, and I’m just glad creativity and being weird can keep you in! I’m telling you this because it compeltely explains half of the most common sentence on my sheet – most people said that I was smart. Some people even said that I was nice. But the second largest majority – including some of the people who said I was smart – said that I was great at speaking Spanish.

This completely floored me. Mostly because I was wondering what kind of delusional Fruit Loops these kids had eaten for breakfast. I didn’t speak Spanish then, in fact I couldn’t even read Spanish then. But I am a good faker. Apparently using a couple of words here and there – every semester or two counted as speaking Spanish. Now, I’m sorry to report, I still can’t speak Spanish. But I can at least read Spanish. I get all panicky about correct verb conjugation that my mind goes entirely blank before I even open my mouth. Yet back then, even though I looked exactly like the rest of the class (I’m pale with dark brown hair and brown eyes, can you say boring?!), the one distinguishing feater about me was that I was, and am, a Latina.

I have never been ashamed of my heritage. I’ve never tried to deny it or belittle it. I’m proud that I have a special extra spice in my life, but I had no idea that even those kids tucked away in the tiny school in the Midwest could see my pride. Heck, I didn’t even know they could see me. I had thought I was about as remarkable as a fly on the wall. But that’s when I started to see – because I was different, because I had pride in my roots, I was special.

This week’s Physical Challenge was posted last Thursday – we had to track how many miles of exercise we put in through Tuesday. Well, let me tell you one thing – I was on vacation starting last Wednesday afternoon, and I not only didn’t see the challenge until Monday morning, but I also didn’t do the challenge. I can’t tell you how far I walked or even how I long I walked. We did some physical exercise this weekend and over the vacation, but it wasn’t measured at all. So I lose the immunity challenge this week for sure.

While on vacation, I actually did fairly well with food but the exercise was more the unplanned, family walk variety. I had my moments, but in general for the first week, I didn’t fail completely. And that was more or less my goal for the first week – to not get kicked out. Now that we are entering the second week, my goal is to get more involved and be more active in the challenge.

I’ve been drinking my water! I know that wasn’t the official challenge, but I thought it was good if I mentioned that I did, at least, accomplish something recordable. I always start out planning to record my food and water consumption, but then I get distracted by something shiney and the whole plan fails. I’m just cool like that, what can I say? 🙂

The crazy weather has totally caught up with me and I’m at the beginning of a cold. Hopefully I will get it whipped before it takes me out. I’m also definitely retaining water this week, joy of joys, and hopefully that will get over soon. You can tell that retention in the fact that I gained 5 pounds this week. Yep, I weighed in today at 236. I’m less than thrilled.I switched from the Burn phase to the Push phase of ChaLEAN Extreme, and I’m totally glad that I did! I had been on the Burn phase for a while because I wasn’t doing well at exercising on the right schedule. So I switched yesterday, and I love it – I have a renewed energy for it. Just like when I started in the first place. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner, but every time I missed a workout, I would start over at Day 1. I know, crazy, right?

But it’s a new week and a new start! Good luck to everyone out there in the Shrinkvivor challenge!

So here I am, totally excited, because I’m a brand new member of Tribe Yellow in the Shrinking Jeans Shrinkvivor Challenge! The prize package on this challenge is totally awesome, but I love the Survivor-esque theme the best. This is going to be a rudely short post, but my son is literally hanging on my arm and trying to drag me away from the computer. Today I weighed in at 231 – this is my recorded starting weight for the Shrinkvivor Challenge.

I’m totally looking forward to getting to know all my tribemates, and I hope you go to the Shrinking Jeans site to check out this really awesome competition.

I’m currently on vacation – although our plans are probably not going to happen – and I’m going to be spending some time this weekend planning a posting schedule for my blog. I’ll be having one Food Truth post per week, in addition to a Mamavation Monday post and a Shrinkvivor Wednesday post. I’m not too hip with doing the memes, and it might take me a couple of weeks to really get in the swing of it again. I’m trying to be organized – weird, I know! 🙂

In other good news, my husband – whose full time job was cut back to part time 4 years ago, who had 3 heart attacks a year ago in July, and had to leave his job of 5 years because he had developed asthma and high blood pressure which resulted in the heart attacks to go to work at a part time job making minimum wage… WAS HIRED INTO A FULL TIME PERMANENT JOB TODAY! We are so completely excited, beyond words. We were literally weeks away from moving in with my parents, and this is an amazing turn around for us. After 4 years, he will be working full time again.

Which means… bring on the baby vibes! We are totally going to be able to TTC again soon!

I hope everyone has a great week, and I’m looking forward to connecting with you this week!

When I was growing up, I didn’t really do the whole sports thing. I was much happier with my nose in a book than with my feet running under me. I sincerely regret that now. You see, one thing (among others) that the athletes learned that I totally missed out on was rules about fitness. How to work out, when to work out, what is good, what is bad, you know. The details. The important little tidbits that people just eventually start assuming that you know. Well, when I started my journey to health and fitness, I didn’t.

These rules I learned the hard way, and believe me there were a lot of times when I went up to my resident jock (aka The Hubs), and very enthusiastically explained this new breakthrough I discovered only to hear him chuckle and say, “Well, duh!” Since I learned it the hard way, I want to pass it on to you – the easy way! 🙂 Hopefully you will learn something useful from my blunders!

Schedule time to work out. People say this all the time. It truly is important. Especially as a mom, there are so many pulls on your time and attention, but spending 30 minutes or an hour on YOU every day will VASTLY benefit your relationships with everyone else. Seriously. Do it now, and do it every day because you will be much closer to being the nice, sweet person you just know is lurking inside you instead of the raging hellcat you show off from time to time. Keep the hellcat in the bedroom, the sweetie in public. 🙂

Most of us will find that scheduling our workouts means we are working out when everyone else is asleep, because otherwise they will find some new way to say “Mom” over and over again until we finally explode. Keeping the hellcat in the bedroom, it’s much easier to work out and take time to yourself when everyone else is unconcious. Sometimes they will wake up when you are working out. You can try to ignore it for a while, but from time to time they really will bust in on your workout. Again, this is a time for a temper check – working out can make you feel so awesome that you might get a little cranky if someone interrupts you. There is a pause button on the DVD remote, so use it. If you’re working out on your own, push your mental pause button. There will be days you don’t pick it up again later, but tomorrow is another day. You can totally rock this.

If you are working out in the morning, you know, waking up early and dragging yourself out of bed so that you can bust a sweat before the fam is up, for the love of Pete, make sure you eat a little something before you start a killer workout. Now for some crazy crazy cardio you don’t want to eat 2 hours before (Plyometrics in P90X, any workout in the Insanity program!), but for most a half of a banana, a slice of homemade whole grain toast (homemade and whole grain plug in one! WOOT WOOT!), whatever. Just put something in there otherwise you’ll be fainting and falling over during your workout. Or you’ll be so fatigued you can’t move. For those other workouts, I mix up a Recovery drink (P90X) shake and keep it nearby – Tony Horton totally tells you to do this on the Plyometrics DVD. It works. Like seriously. And so does the kick booty workout. So you know, take care of yourself.

What you are doing doesn’t matter so much as thatyou are doing. You could do Pilates, ChaLEAN Extreme, Yoga, Leslie Sansone Walk at Home, P90X, Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred, Carmen Electra’s Fit to Strip, whatever. You could jump rope and run around your house 20 times for all I care. The important fact is that you are moving your booty. You don’t have to be a masochist and jump from the couch to P90X (and seriously, don’t. If you can’t pass the fitness test, do not start. Try another program until you can pass the fit test). Just get up and get moving. Do something. I cannot even begin to tell you how many fitness DVDs I have. I even have salsa dancing somewhere. And prenatal yoga. But you know what, for years I had all those DVDs and still did nothing. The having a workout isn’t as important as doing a workout. Strap on your gym shoes, tennis shoes, whatever you call them, and break a sweat. Just do it. I know, I totally sound like a Nike commercial! 🙂

Get a buddy. Anyone who thinks that they are going to personally hold themselves accountable is crazy. You can make up one million and one excuses right now that will prevent you from working out. Seriously, do it. Get out a pen and paper, open Notepad on your computer, whatever. Spend five minutes writing down every single excuse you can think of to not exercise. Ok, now look at your list. Short of – “I was hit by a bus and am now in a coma”, every single reason on that list is no longer a valid excuse for you to not work out. Type it up, print it out, laminate it, pass it around to your family and your friends. If you, or they, hear you saying any single one of those excuses, tell yourself (or listen to them tell you) that you are not being true to yourself. Tell yourself (or have them tell you) how freaking awesome you will feel after you finish working out. Tell yourself (or have them tell you, you’re getting it now, right?) that you are not only awesome, you are a powerful, beautiful, kick booty woman who is going to take that workout and grind it down into little tiny sweat balls that decorate the floor/ground/pavement whatever. You can totally do this. You EARNED this workout.

I love y’all, and I hope you kick some booty working out today. As for me, I did a workout DVD this morning – and you know what, I’m waking up on my own without an alarm clock EARLY for workouts and JUMPING out of bed because I’m pumped. I know, I never would’ve thought that would happen either. If I can do it, you can TOTALLY do it.

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My name is Joanna Liberty, although you may know me online as way2gomom. I'm an at home mom to 2 very rowdy boys, and I love to crochet, garden, learn how to be healthier, and write! Thanks for checking out my site, I'd love to know what you think!

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